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Ashton Carter, President Obama’s nominee for secretary of Defense, said at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that he was “very much inclined” to provide lethal arms to Ukrainian forces fighting Russia-backed separatists, staking out a position that goes beyond White House policy. “We need to support Ukraine in defending themselves,” Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Carter’s comments fueled a growing debate inside the administration and Congress over whether the White House should start providing defensive weapons to the embattled government in Kiev to try to force Moscow to withdraw its support for eastern Ukraine’s...

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Ashton Carter, President Obama’s nominee for secretary of Defense, said at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that he was “very much inclined” to provide lethal arms to Ukrainian forces fighting Russia-backed separatists, staking out a position...

A thought commonly attributed to George Orwell holds that good people can sleep at night only because rough men are awake and ready to protect them. But in the modern world, two other groups are also vital to a sound sleep: software engineers and computer...

As he searches for his fourth Defense secretary in six years, President Obama appears to be looking for a more forceful, articulate military leader to navigate the tough but limited wars that are likely to consume much of his final two years in office.
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To those old enough to remember the frostiest days of the Cold War, today's headlines and images seem very familiar. Military troops under the control of Moscow cross borders with impunity. Heads of NATO states struggle to generate an effective...

To the editor: I, for one, have been thrilled to have a president who has exercised restraint in going to war and not seeking military solutions to everything. It has made me feel a lot safer. ("Obama still in office, but ex-aides' books and claws...

Former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was first to land a punch. Then former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in with a memoir that distanced herself from her president's foreign policy.
And Tuesday, former CIA chief and Defense...

Discordant notes from the Obama administration last week were widely interpreted as a collision between a war-weary president and a gung-ho military. And it was easy to see why.President Obama ordered airstrikes against Islamic State militants, but...

After nearly a decade of being derided as dangerous to fly and an example of wasteful military spending, the radar-evading F-22 fighter jet flew in combat for the first time in this week’s U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria.
The Pentagon said it used...

With a convulsive rumble, followed by billowing flames and exhaust, a sleek 60-foot rocket emerged from its silo at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
It was a test of the backbone of the nation's missile defense system. If North Korea or Iran...

A Boy Scout troop in Seattle that was chartered in November lost its affiliation with the national organization last week after refusing to remove a scout leader who is gay, Boy Scouts of America said.
Geoffrey McGrath first announced his sexual...

WASHINGTON — In speeches and remarks last week in Europe, President Obama made it clear that he considers Russia's annexation of Crimea a very big deal. But he also defined what it's not: an overwhelming national security threat, such as the U.S.-Soviet...

WASHINGTON -- The United States would not recognize a referendum by Crimea to leave Ukraine, and a shift of that region to Russia “is not a done deal,” a top Obama administration official said Sunday.
“If there is a referendum and it votes to move Crimea...

Six weeks before the Afghan election, at a meeting at the presidential palace, women's rights activist Sima Samar gently teased President Hamid Karzai about being a short-timer.
Karzai suddenly grew emotional, Samar recalled. "To be honest, my...

Robert Gates, the new president of the Boy Scouts of America, said Friday night that he would have moved last year to allow openly gay adults in the organization — a step further than the Scouts ultimately took — but said he opposes any further attempts...

The nation's trouble-plagued missile defense system registered a success Sunday when a ground-based interceptor fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base destroyed a mock enemy warhead high above the Pacific, military officials said.
The interception marked...

A group of U.S. diplomats arrived in Libya three years ago to a memorable reception: a throng of cheering men and women who pressed in on the startled group "just to touch us and thank us," recalled Susan Rice, President Obama's national...

California voters overwhelmingly embraced Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown over his Republican rivals in the June primary, but he has failed to win them over on some of the state's most pressing issues.
Brown's handling of state prisons, efforts to address...

World leaders, diplomats and experts have often fretted about the future of NATO and whether the end of its mission in Afghanistan would also be the end of its relevance.
But as 60 leaders, including President Obama, converge on Cardiff, Wales, this week...